Anyone made it to wave 50+ in endless mode yet? I gave it a shot for the first time last night and 33 waves was the best I could get. I haven't even finished all of the story mode maps yet though so I don't have everything unlocked.

I made it to level 31 on the two rifts with the cart going down the middle - but only at the end of Act 1, I'm also limited in what I have unlocked.

Some of those later mobs are just HP buckets - and my poor 8 or 9 paladins all went down.

The skull costs for a lot of the stuff is a little disappointing for me- I finished a co-op playthrough last night, and even though we 5-skulled most of the maps, I've only earned enough skulls to upgrade 4-5 things, and I've only bought a few traps, and haven't touched much anything in the weapon or trinket sections. I appreciate the new customization options, but with the current system, I feel that I'm at least somewhat locked into using just the traps that I've upgraded, as opposed to being able to pick the right traps for the right situations.

That being said, I've been really enjoying the game, and while I'm disappointed in the new performance of some of my favorite traps from the original game (grinder, barricade), others are a lot of fun (haymaker, flame vent), and charming mobs with the sorceress and having them beat each other up is both a life saver in hairy situations and a lot of fun.

I appreciate the new customization options, but with the current system, I feel that I'm at least somewhat locked into using just the traps that I've upgraded, as opposed to being able to pick the right traps for the right situations.

False.

You can completely respec your skulls free of charge. Noodles and I do so before every serious attempt at a level. Makes a HUGE difference.

I appreciate the new customization options, but with the current system, I feel that I'm at least somewhat locked into using just the traps that I've upgraded, as opposed to being able to pick the right traps for the right situations.

False.

You can completely respec your skulls free of charge. Noodles and I do so before every serious attempt at a level. Makes a HUGE difference.

Yeah, I've found this, but I'm also lazy in how much effort I'll put in preparing to have fun. I just feel that I don't get a lot out of having 3 power levels to purchase on all of the traps and weapons just makes me feel like I shouldn't ever bring one that isn't fully upgraded. I love the unique upgrades, though, and I wish that they'd put more effort into those sorts of tradeoffs I can choose between instead of the stat upgrades. Straight statistical upgrades just makes me feel like I shouldn't use anything that's not fully upgraded, whereas choosing if I want my floor spikes to slow or bleed is an interesting choice that lets me feel like I'm able to customize my traps to my playstyle.

Just hit 60 in endless mode. It's a little ridiculous at this point. But awesome. Awesomely ridiculous.

That is pretty awesome. I thought I was doing well hitting 43. I think by the end I was getting like 6 gnolls per wave and they did a pretty good job of just running past everything and chewing my face off.

Yeah, the other guy I was playing with carried us towards the end. I abused tar & brimstone, with some arrows as well. I also had the trap reset trinket, the blunderbus, and the ice ring. He had (as the sorceress) the wand, polymorph ring, acid, mana wells, haymakers, and ??. It basically devolved in to a couple rows of brimstone followed by a field of tar pits lined with acid/arrow launchers, with me AOE-frosting mobs right as they were getting hit with mulitple traps, and him polymorphing gnolls, trolls & frost ogres. Anything that would get past us would get freeze-locked (ice ring -> 2 shots w/ blunderbus -> ice ring -> ...) till it died, gets pushed off a ledge, or polymorphed.

In the end, we ran in to a clipping issue caused by the haymaker, where it will "suck" a mob up in to the ceiling. The game will occasionally reset/move on with the wave when it encounters this kind of error, however, we got stuck at level 60 with a gnoll in our attic and the game wouldn't move on.

Had that not happened, I think we would have survived another 5-10 levels before the Heavy Orcs would have overwhelmed us. Once they can make it past our traps consistently, we would have been in trouble.

I did my first attempt at endless last night, playing solo, and got up to wave 37 or so before getting overwhelmed by a big wave of earth lords. It was a lot of fun, though I think it would have been a lot better co-op, as the hardest part of it for me was splitting my attention between the two paths. I think next time I'm going to try a level with ceilings I can trap effectively, since haymakers and swinging maces figure prominently in my good death zones.

I did my first attempt at endless last night, playing solo, and got up to wave 37 or so before getting overwhelmed by a big wave of earth lords. It was a lot of fun, though I think it would have been a lot better co-op, as the hardest part of it for me was splitting my attention between the two paths. I think next time I'm going to try a level with ceilings I can trap effectively, since haymakers and swinging maces figure prominently in my good death zones.

Feel free to add me on your steam list guys.

Been trying to do some co-op; but when I'm available for it - it's around 10pm or later (Central time). And not seeing many of the friends I do have on it at that time.

I'll be happy to give it another go with ya too - but usually I'm tied up (one way or another - be it on steam or not) until 10pm CST.

I did some co-op with D@sh last night and it was very fun.

Then I moved on to Endless mode (why not, eh?) solo. It was interesting and fun. My defenses (and my poor poor archers) were penetrated/violated on Wave 32 of the Tunnels (2nd map from the Story mode). -- but I got something like 16 skulls.

I really should learn if there is a way to improve the odds of when the skulls get dropped. I always just kind of go with it and don't focus on such things - but they seem to be very random drops.

Well it was to me anyway. Plus, I thought it was far more polite than saying we mutually had our way with a couple levels of the classic maps and all the creatures therein.

Ah, what a glorious slaughter! There were ways it could have been improved/tweaked but honestly I try not to be too OCD with it and just enjoy the carnage and moderate combos.

[e]: I think I have a serious addiction to being able to charm mobs as the Sorceress. The ONLY thing I miss from the War Mage is the Tar trap. Because, that trap was a lynchpin for me in many strategies for me; but it's kind of interesting for me to work around that limitation (when solo of course). But, I find I prefer the Co-op to the solo by far. Half the ability slots, but triple the fun.

So, yeah, I finally played with my pal last night. Already eager to kill more orcs.

Didn't I try to sell you on the first one at some point? I loved the first one, and I'm excited for this but I'll probably pick it up once it is available for the 360 rather than tax my PC with it. Although it does look pretty simple graphically so it might be fine on my POS PC?

So, yeah, I finally played with my pal last night. Already eager to kill more orcs.

Didn't I try to sell you on the first one at some point? I loved the first one, and I'm excited for this but I'll probably pick it up once it is available for the 360 rather than tax my PC with it. Although it does look pretty simple graphically so it might be fine on my POS PC?

I'm sure that you should try to get it for PC anyway, because the co-op is amazing. There's a demo you can try for free to see how it runs.

Didn't I try to sell you on the first one at some point? I loved the first one, and I'm excited for this but I'll probably pick it up once it is available for the 360 rather than tax my PC with it. Although it does look pretty simple graphically so it might be fine on my POS PC?

Did some co-op on Caldera tonight. It took 3 tries to get it right, but we completed 60 waves, and suicided because it is getting late and it was getting tedious. You know it's been going too long when Heavy Orcs don't give you money.

Currently ranked #3 in the world on Caldera co-op, warmage difficulty. That. Was. Fun. (and tiring)

Did some co-op on Caldera tonight. It took 3 tries to get it right, but we completed 60 waves, and suicided because it is getting late and it was getting tedious. You know it's been going too long when Heavy Orcs don't give you money.

Currently ranked #3 in the world on Caldera co-op, warmage difficulty. That. Was. Fun. (and tiring)

Nifty and congrats! I've just gotten the War mage story done this weekend - and the classic levels . But not done more than a couple of endless maps yet. I spent FAR too long trying to 5-Skull Twisted Stairs last night on solo. Won every time, but there was something that kept getting into the rift on wave 11 or so. I think it was a loose Gnoll Hunter. Dammit.

I did do the first Endless map co-op with my son yesterday and we got it to wave 37 i think. If he'd been more cautious and not dashed out to melee so much (and occassionally die to cyclopses and grenadiers) we probably could have made it considerably farther - but it was still fun on that flawed little map.

So I have this now. I'm not sure what my Steam handle is but I think it is also "Antipater". I'm down for a game, and recently added myself to the Ars group, but don't have our vent info or a mic.

Despite my concerns it runs fantastically on my PC, on max settings, at a so far perfect 60 fps. Must be well optimized because nothing else runs this well. All the clicking is murder on my hands, I've been softened up by years of MMOs. Playing it on this platform is nice from an aiming perspective, I can hit fliers from across the map which was not happening with the 360 pad.

I went with the enchantress, charm is a real game changer. Changes to sappers seemed to make barricades pointless, as they now just run straight to the barricades, but then I realized brimstone traps are good for nipping that in the bud. I just throw a few fully upgraded brimstone down at all the entrances to get the sappers exploded and then can make whatever maze I want. I will play through with the other character soon because I dearly miss tar traps in kill zones - frost trap isn't quite as awesome.

So I have this now. I'm not sure what my Steam handle is but I think it is also "Antipater". I'm down for a game, and recently added myself to the Ars group, but don't have our vent info or a mic.

Despite my concerns it runs fantastically on my PC, on max settings, at a so far perfect 60 fps. Must be well optimized because nothing else runs this well. All the clicking is murder on my hands, I've been softened up by years of MMOs. Playing it on this platform is nice from an aiming perspective, I can hit fliers from across the map which was not happening with the 360 pad.

I went with the enchantress, charm is a real game changer. Changes to sappers seemed to make barricades pointless, as they now just run straight to the barricades, but then I realized brimstone traps are good for nipping that in the bud. I just throw a few fully upgraded brimstone down at all the entrances to get the sappers exploded and then can make whatever maze I want. I will play through with the other character soon because I dearly miss tar traps in kill zones - frost trap isn't quite as awesome.

I'll find you online, sir. We need to do some orc killing. There are some neat things to be done combining the unique elements of each class. Coordination will be tricky without a mic, though. We'll have to do something about that.

You may find FPS start to struggle at around Wave 35 of Endless mode in 2-player. Man, those tunnels were nuts.

You guys can hit me up for co-op too if you like. - my Steam handle is the same as here -- Smirker -- and my avatar is the Vault boy from the Fallout Series. And I'm in the Ars group.

I spent last night toying with the bromage instead of the sorceress (who I typically use) -- and man - life with tar is just SO much easier. I love the charm aspect, but in higher levels I found I didn't have room for the wand -- but was falling back to Xbow and some other spell/weapon (like Ice Amulet or Lightning ring).

But, I don't mind doing either the bromage or the sorceress and haven't even touched nightmare or endless modes past the third or so (yet). Nor am I oppossed to knocking out earlier levels for people -- because I try and rethink strategies a lot and I'm amused by killing orcs in various ways. Archers are no longer one of the most annoying eneies to me - Gnoll grenadiers (and cyclops mages) now hold that honor.

Got through a few more levels with The Wife. She gets a crazy amount of glee making them fight each other.

Got stopped HARD by Crunch. Going to have to go and totally re-think our approach to that level.

Crunch is a PITA; I have a summation of a strat I used the last couple of times that worked well for me - but it does require a lot of running around if solo.

Spoiler: show

I do tight killzones with grinders and ice vents/tar (preferred) and pounders overhead for the side doors. Run it 3 or 4 deep and you won't get much in the way of leaks. I do other killzones up by each upper door (not as robust as they will leak some but I can take the stragglers on their long walk to the Rift) and mostly take care of fliers manually.

If you use guardians; I found that placing a few on the inside corners of the Rift area works well as they tend to shoot both fliers and hallway mobs - but I don't think I usually have the resources for them until past halfway through the level. Plus, by placing them on the inside it makes the Gnoll Hunters have to work harder to get to them and if you slow/freeze them traps on the inside of the stairs area the archers can even pick them off themselves (mostly). Of course, I'd like to try a decoy around the stairs too to see if that protects the archers - but slot space is scarce.

I skip dwarves on this level as their range is too short; they aren't helpful for fliers and there aren't enough elementals to make them be really needed for the killzones IMO.

Also, I only recently started doing this but IMO the barricade unique for allowing them to take more damage is MUCH better than the self-healing unique. They can take multiple sapper hits without going down and on war mage difficulty they get auto-repaired on breaks. usually on non-sapper levels if the barricades get hit a bit too much by archers by the design of your killzone then the regeneration might be handy.

I tried doing the killzones for the upper doors around the small overhand to each long hallway at the Rift area - but while I could get a decent little killzone going - it tended to leak too much IMO and it ended up using up more time as the mobs always had a long long walk down to them.

Archers are no longer one of the most annoying eneies to me - Gnoll grenadiers (and cyclops mages) now hold that honor.

Polymorph or even just charm makes these enemies trivial. Kobold sappers are worse.

Yea, I love charm - but trying out different things so I'm not as reliant on it. Plus, it can be hard to hit the grenadiers with targeted spells like charm/poly since they are actually a bit squatter than many other mobs.

But, TBH I've not played with a number of toys yet (like the Poly ring). Which is why i love this game - there's a lot of different ways you can play it and still have it be valid and fun. For me sappers aren't a huge deal most of the time because either I take care of them manually, or have some intermittent traps to help thin their ranks -- unless I was closer to them than the barricades when they come out -- then they come to you and it is not a big problem (usually) to sprint around and pop them so they take out some of their buddies instead of me.

@Smirker: That's more or less what I had decided on trying next. We'll see how it works out next time we play.

Spoiler: show

I also tried out doing some things to go barricade-less - like using tar/scorchers and some other wall traps like acid/arrow - and it works very well overall depending on how you do it - but may occasionally have faster leaks than you would like on earlier stages of the level. After OMD1 I still tend to prefer tar/grinder combos though and i trend towards that. Haymakers are great - except for the fact that for overhang areas I dislike how they can knock mobs out of my killzone area. Swinging maces work great for the side areas if you align them sideways as well (so mobs don't get knocked out of the killzone) and make sure they are sufficiently slowed and running a small maze.

But, for me that is often a bit more trouble to setup so I end up getting lazy and throwing up grinders/pounders. Of course, this is why I use the lighting ring a lot too. The chain lighting primary makes runners and such trivial and helps to clear early waves very fast for me. Thanks to Twisted Stairs though I'm getting much better with the Ice Amulet though. hehe. But, I have to remind myself that everyone's playstyle is a bit different, so the way I do it is not the way everyone would. So, all strategies tend to get a bit different and even the way I build my stuff is probably not the most ideal way - but still works for me due to how I operate overall.

I know I could still improve a lot too; but for me it's fun to do things to sometimes optimize and sometimes just cause havok.. But in general I don't tear down killzones, even if during a break I can tear them down and elaborate/refine them better in a different spot. I guess I don't mind racing the clock a bit. If the timer didn't continue through the breaks (after the first) I would absolutely do that though - so I have mixed feelings that they don't pause the timer for the breaks. I think it's to prepare one for nightmare anyway - the NM levels I did in OMD1 I can't recall any breaks like war mage difficulty gets.